First rides

Rode the bike around the town a couple times. Sounds pretty good to me, except at idle there's a bit of a cough every 20-30 seconds or so. Spark plugs?

 

eh, could be. Could be float height, air filter, sticky float. Also, could be ignite problem. Is one pipe colder longer when starting from cold? Could be a flaky ignition.

I'd really guess at the carbs first though, mix not quite right, or floats / jets not quite right.

You could pull the plugs after running on idle and see how they look: lean or rich or good. Plus you could test each plug for spark while they're out.

How old is the gas? does it have ethanol? last year's ethanol? Maybe a shot of seafoam would help out.

 

Actually, the second pipe in from the right did not get hot as quickly as the others. What does that mean?

 

It's not fireing like the others are. At least at first. That's at least a place to start looking.

For free: pull plugs on the two cylinders on the right and switch them. If the problem ( slow heating up ) follows the plug, then it's a plug issue. If the same cylinder is still heating up slow, then it's not the plug, and could be starved for gas ( lean ), too much gas ( rich ). Looking at plug condition after idling for a bit will show that as well ( as mentioned above ).

* edit * this test has to be done from cold engine, so long wait in between *

If the plugs look like they are OK, and the mix looks OK, then you may have an ignition issue, but I'd be leery to point at that first.

If you pull the 'cooler' warmup plug, see if it smells of gas, and if the plug is wet. Do this test when it's just been running for 10 seconds or so. If it's wet then your carb is sending gas. If it's dry, but the other plugs are wet'ish, then you're not getting fuel to that cylinder as quickly.

As mentioned above, maybe your float height is off, and maybe your float valve is sticking. Seafoam ( pretty cheap ) is a possible solution to the second option. You can check float height with the clear tube on the drain spigot, I think ( haven't done it ). I think there may be threads to setting float height. I believe Fitz has a picture how-to on here as well.

Seafoam may help if you have old gas too, or buildup from ethanol gas if it's been sitting. Being from MN, I'd guess your bike may have set all winter with the same gas in the tank. That would certainly give me pause, and make me add some seafoam. 1 oz per gallon, i think.

 

I did add Sta-bil and detach the battery over the winter, but maybe I should put all new gas in. But I'll switch the plugs and see what happens. I have some new ones, AMD I don't know when or if the PO changed the plugs. Thanks.

 

Yeah, sta-bil should have kept her good, but i figured it was worth a shout. i've had plenty of funny runnings that were gas related.

The other tests mostly are cheap or free, so figured it would be best to start there. I just read on another thread that pilot may get clogged and show this issue as well, on one cylinder, which could make for the slower heat up. Carbs would be pulled to check and clean. That's why a seafoam visit may be a good idea for you; it may fix the problem without much other work / money.

 

Yeah, I'd like to avoid taking the carbs apart if I can, until I get a little more confidence It's the resetting part that scares me. But I know where to go if I have to take them apart.